You love me like the artificial
bone loves the dog, leather
smack and toothmark.
I bark at the aqua wall, whimper
when thrown to the Venetian. I fleck
paint, dig nails into sheetrock.
My saliva carpets this floor, all tongue
and hunger, lapping water like
it’s the only thing keeping me alive.
(originally published in Page & Spine, Spring 2017)